Mage Tree Skill Order?

[royalme]

Hello! I'm making my first playthrough of the game on Normal as a Mage and I'm loving the game. I've tried a few starts between Mage and Paladin, but I found the Paladin skill tree to be a lot less inspiring than the Mage tree and I like using spells.

With that said, I am having a difficult time understanding what I should skill up first and in what order is optimal. Alchemy sounds like a must since I want to play around with a lot of spells, Distortion or Order level 3 sounds powerful, but then so does Higher Magic and Concentration.

I would greatly appreciate some advice from more seasoned players on what skills I should get first or in what conditions I should aim for certain skills first. I've tried to read the forums front to back, and I find some advice on what skills are good to get, but not so much on the order in which to get them (which would really help a new player like me).